Kerri Einarson got run support from her lineup in an 8-4 doubling of Denmark at the women’s world curling championship Monday.
Canada improved to 3-2 and takes on Japan (4-0) in its lone game Tuesday at the CN Centre.
Einarson’s third Val Sweeting posted her best game of the championship so far, shooting 94 per cent and swinging momentum to Canada with takeout shots in the sixth and seventh ends.
Sweeting was 100 per cent on her draws as was second Shannon Birchard in hits for 97 per cent accuracy overall. That put pressure on the Danes and took pressure off Einarson, who struggled in the first half of the game, but made her open hit to score three points in the sixth end.
“It makes my job a lot a lot easier instead of throwing runs and doubles all the time, but yeah, just making sure I’m making those shots that we have for multiple points,” the skip said.
South Korea, Switzerland and Japan topped the standings at 4-0 with the Swiss and Japanese playing in Monday night’s draw.
Sweden was 3-1 ahead of Canada at 3-2. Denmark, Norway and the United States were tied at 2-2 followed by Germany and Italy at 1-3, the Czech Republic at 1-4 and winless Turkey.
After losing two games, Scotland withdrew Sunday because four players tested positive for COVID-19. The Scots forfeit the rest of their games which will give Canada another win Wednesday.
The top six teams at the conclusion of the round robin Friday advance to playoffs. The top two seeds earn byes to Saturday’s semifinals, with third through sixth playing off that day to join them.
The medal games are Sunday.
Danish skip Madeleine Dupont and her sister, Denise, throwing second stones are playing in their 12th career world championship.
Their best result was a silver medal in 2007 as members of the Angelina Jensen team that lost to Canada’s Kelly Scott in the final.
Madeleine threw fourth stones for Jensen then. The Danes, who are coached by Canadian Heather Rogers, are coming off a 2-7 performance in Beijing’s Olympic Games last month.
Einarson had chances to score two with hammer in both the first and fourth ends, but counted singles in each.
Her shooter rolled out in the opening end and she was heavy on a draw to the four-foot rings in the fourth.
Denmark scored a deuce to lead 3-2 at the fifth-end break. Vice Mathilde Halse made a tricky draw behind cover.
Einarson’s attempted angle tap behind cover ran straight. Dupont angle-raised one of her own for the deuce.
The Canadian skip shot 50 per cent in the first half of the game, but was more precise in the back half.
“There’s some she wanted back early for sure, but, you know, she’s just so clutch we never sweat anything,” Sweeting said. “We knew that she’d come through. We just had to keep setting her up.”
Sweeting’s double takeout to lie shot stone with two other Canadian counters behind guards helped set up the hosts up for a multi-point end in the sixth.
Dupont’s takeout attempt was disastrous as both her shooter and a Danish stone rolled outside of Canada’s counters.
Denmark had the house split in the seventh, but Sweeting’s hit and roll behind cover swung the advantage back to Canada. Dupont was heavy and wide on a draw that gave up the steal of two to the host country.
The Danes shook hands after the ninth end.
Sweeting had an up and down first four games, but felt she wasn’t far off her performance Monday.
“It’s tough to trust the process and stick with it,” Sweeting said. “Sometimes you kind of want to grasp at straws and look for answers, but it really was just being patient and trust that we would figure it out, get those rocks in a good spot and just not try and reinvent the wheel.
“We were there for each other. We just wanted to get everything that we could out of each other and I think that we did that.”
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